Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39911842›Full record

ArticleComputational and structural biotechnology journal2025

AlphaFold 2, but not AlphaFold 3, predicts confident but unrealistic β-solenoid structures for repeat proteins.

Olivia S Pratt, Luc G Elliott, Margaux Haon, Shahram Mesdaghi, Rebecca M Price, Adam J Simpkin, Daniel J Rigden

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Computational and structural biotechnology journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Testing the reliability of AI-generated protein structures.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Advances and opportunities for computational interrogation of plant proteins.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2026
    Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Journal of bacteriology · 2025
    Review
  17. AlphaFold3: An Overview of Applications and Performance Insights.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Review
  18. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Olivia S PrattDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
Luc G ElliottDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
Margaux HaonDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
Shahram MesdaghiDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
Rebecca M PriceDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
Adam J SimpkinDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
Daniel J RigdenDepartment of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems, Biology, Institute of Structural, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

AlphaFold 2 (AF2) has revolutionised protein structure prediction but, like any new tool, its performance on specific classes of targets, especially those potentially under-represented in its training data, merits attention. Prompted by a highly confident prediction for a biologically meaningless, randomly permuted repeat sequence, we assessed AF2 performance on sequences composed of perfect repeats of random sequences of different lengths. AF2 frequently folds such sequences into β-solenoids which, while ascribed high confidence, contain unusual and implausible features such as internally stacked and uncompensated charged residues. A number of sequences confidently predicted as β-solenoids are predicted by other advanced methods as intrinsically disordered. The instability of some predictions is demonstrated by molecular dynamics. Importantly, other deep learning-based structure prediction tools predict different structures or β-solenoids with much lower confidence suggesting that AF2 alone has an unreasonable tendency to predict confident but unrealistic β-solenoids for perfect repeat sequences. The potential implications for structure prediction of natural (near-)perfect sequence repeat proteins are also explored.

Indexed as

AlphafoldBeta-solenoidModel confidenceRepeat proteinsStructure prediction

Identifiers

PMID39911842
PMCPMC11795689

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.